On Monday September 17, students viewed a presentation by guest speaker, Attorney Arlen “Rick” Day. He discussed many important issues such as underage driving, underage drinking and drug use. Mrs. Tiffany Hummel, high school principal, said, “It’s important to touch base with students about consequences for poor decisions. They often hear about this from us at school, but it’s nice to hear from someone else.”

Junior Myah Kimmel commented “Over the past few years our school alone had approximately 5-10 threats. This is all in the time span of about 4 years. For us to know how this is legally handled might have made these people rethink a few things. I know I wouldn’t want to see kids ruining their lives because of stupid or irrational decisions.”

Senior Louie Yeich believes that the reason why Attorney Day decided to stop by is that, “He cares about the safety of the students. He doesn’t want to see those kids in any trouble.”

Attorney Day told the students about many experiences he has had with clients and the outcomes for certain types of behavior. Junior Morgan Rich commented that she learned that “A DUI is the number one cause of teen death. This was surprising because I never thought that many teens died from it.”

In addition to consequences for crimes, Attorney Day also touched on acts that students may not have considered to be criminal activities. Senior Hannah Marmas found it interesting that, “In a basketball game, if you punch someone, you can get arrested.”

While many students felt that Attorney Day delivered a crucial message, some had contrasting opinions on his characterization of some of the people in his stories. “I felt that his message was very important, but the examples he gave were a bit stereotypical. Just because a man has tattoos and an odd haircut does not always mean he is a crackhead,” stated sophomore Lexi Shilling.

Part of Attorney Day’s presentation included information for students about how sentencing works when a person commits multiple crimes during one incident. Junior Samantha Brennan said, “I was surprised that for each crime you are charged with, the jail time is added together.”

Several of the speaker’s examples involved students who were pressured by their peers to do or to try something illegal. In the end of each story, Day emphasized that the students had to face the consequences for that action alone. “Don’t feel bad for making decisions that upset others,” freshman Noa Fletcher said. “You’re not responsible for their happiness. You’re responsible for yours.”